The State Historical Society does not have the resources to excavate, they are understaffed and overworked, and oil development has increased their workload as is the case in all state agencies. They are busy trying to manage the tasks and duties they already have, plus build a museum.
State Lands would have to give permission for an excavation, and the sites in question were not discovered until after the ground froze. State Lands has not given permission for an excavation, and the Historical Society cannot object because it is unknown if the sites are significant. They can only object to development if the sites are known to be significant, the sites cannot be determined significant until they excavate, and/or determine the boundaries of the battlefield. The battlefield has a recommended study boundary based on the written documents from 149 years ago. There is a lot of work to complete the study needed to determine the boundaries of the battlefield. Over 100 people died in that battle and their burial locations are unknown. The area has known occupation for 3000 years, and has stories and traditions surrounding it that continue to be practiced to this day.
Also, archaeologists do not just go around digging holes just because. Preservation in place is always preferable, if the site is going to be destroyed than a plan is worked out to mitigate the damage. When an oil company puts wells in on a battlefield they are destroying the integrity of the whole site, and it doesn't matter if they put fill on it. The fill itself is destruction of the site. In that case Hess and Lynn Helms have made archaeological determinations on how to do preservation. These are not people trained in preservation and it is insult to all permitted cultural resource staff in ND for them to do so. To be permitted to make those determinations one must have a Masters degree in Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Resource Management, Historic Preservation, or Architectural History If Lynn Helms goes to school to get the proper education and takes on several grand in debt than I will consider respecting his determinations on how to best preserve sites.
Private property rights are sacred in this state, and are not going anywhere anytime soon. No archaeologist would enter someone else's property without permission from the landowner. Also in the testimony at the first hearing Dr. Rothaus said that he could record the sites, and tomorrow the landowner could go plow it up, or do whatever he wanted with the site. No one can tell the landowner what to do with his/her land. A project with federal funds would have a lot of issues because of federal preservation laws, but the only thing that would stop a landowner from doing anything on private land is the state burial law. You can't dig up burials, if you dig up a known grave your going to get in trouble. Duh! You can't go dig up somebodies grandma in the cemetery, nor can you dig up a known grave site on the prairie. Common sense stuff.
Also, one cannot talk about Whitestone without talking about Killdeer Mountain Battlefield, or the Uprising of 1862. The battles are all connected. Killdeer is important for the number of people fighting and the figures who fought there. Sitting Bull is an internationally known figure. This was his first known encounter with the military. Gall and Inkpaduta are other well known figures, and if you doubt it check out the books written about these people. This is a Civil War site and the most significant one in North Dakota. It is part of what made this state and this nation, and we should not forget where we come from and where we have been. We should not forget the way our government chose to drive out the American Indian people. The government took away their food supplies, forced them onto reservations and then starved them. They have not forgotten the historical trauma, and the people of this nation should not forget either. It is important to recognize the lives lost here, just as our nation recognizes the soldiers lost in all the Civil War battles, and other wars we have fought.
I'm not sure why the author thinks there is an archaeological, historical, or sacred site every few feet. It is completely false, and rarely is development halted for sites, usually sites are worked around without any problem, or real consideration for the visual and audible impacts to sites in ND. That explains why there will likely be a bridge near Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch, because the impacts are not given enough time and serious consideration, nor is there enough time to do serious research, besides oil is king, and not even Roosevelt's grandson can save it. Very few sacred sites are known in ND, that information is considered confidential by all the tribes I have worked with, and they don't like to share that knowledge. I believe I heard Fern Swenson of the State Historic Preservation Office say that less than 11% of ND has been surveyed, and only 4% of state lands has been surveyed. That leaves a lot of unknowns out there, and a lot of unknown destruction.
No one was trying to block oil development, there were alternatives suggested for drilling near the battlefield, just not on it. Lynn Helms did not like the alternatives, even though Continental has drilled from three miles away to avoid the battlefield, and still have access. The NDIC chose to agree with Lynn Helms. Most projects go through a process with real alternatives, alternatives that take public input into serious consideration. That has not happened in this case, Hess would rather drill on the battlefield than on a section that would have no physical impacts on the site, and Lynn Helms has bent over backwards to allow them to do so.
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